ATTITUDES TO AGEING AND DYING
By Dr David Powell
Powell Charity Trust. 212 pages. £7.50
(www.hiskeyltd.com/bookworks)
ISBN 978 0 956 233 622
The book is packed with facts, opinions and attitudes on topics from the process of ageing, ageism, dying and death itself. As well as his own observations and opinions Dr Powell quotes a kaleidoscope of medical specialists and researchers, Greek philosophers, public health officials, charity directors and published pieces.
Dr Powell (aged 82) draws on his own experience as an NHS patient as well as his medical experience in pathology and haematology. His chapter on ageing is superb. He rightly nails ageism as being rife in society and in the NHS today, quoting Michelle Martin, charity director of Age UK, who pointed out that if older people are not valued in society how can they be expected to be valued in hospital? In an Orwellian twist, the chief executive of the NHS Commission Board, Dr David Nicholson, said that because hospitals are very bad places for old, frail people we need to focus on ways of keeping them away from them. Doctors’ clinical judgments are being over-ruled by targets and regulations. Dr Powell’s chapters on issues such as suicide, helping to die and euthanasia are clear and informative. He notes that once euthanasia is legalised its practice increases in that society, as evidenced in Holland. Who should decide and who makes the rules, he asks in Chapter 16. He also looks at the role of older people in the New Testament and in our churches today.
No biblical doctrine?
His reflections on the scriptural view of ageing are less certain. In more than one place he avers that there is no biblical doctrine of ageing. Yet surely doctrine springs from what God commands? Leviticus 19.32 could not be clearer: ‘You shall rise up before the gray headed, and honour the face of the old man, and fear your God: I am the LORD’ (NKJ). According to pastor and author, Roger Hitchings, the biblical doctrine of ageing begins in Genesis with statements about the length of individuals’ lives, showing that how long we live is significant and how we are to use those days. It is developed through passages like Leviticus 17 and Exodus 20. The concept of honouring parents is refined to older people and widows in particular. The examples and practices of old men like Abraham, Jacob, Moses, etc. all set out a doctrinal framework for understanding how we are to approach ageing. Further definition is given in Psalm 71, 92, Isaiah 46 and Isaiah 41:4, and the emphasis on generations is all part of the theology of ageing. When Paul refers to himself as ‘Paul the aged’ in his letter to Philemon he is not describing himself as decrepit, as Dr Powell supposes, but is stating his respected position.
So while there is both a biblical theology and a systematic theology of old age in the Bible, there is not a developed doctrinal study on old age. It is a huge gap in the whole area of pastoral theology that urgently needs to be filled.
